Waiters Need Not Apply: New Zealand Cafe Uses Pneumatic Tubes For Straight-To-Table Delivery

The C One Espresso (sometimes called the C1 Cafe) in New Zealand has brought a bit of The Jetsons' world to its customers, ushering in an altogether futuristic dining-out experience while giving those afraid of the future reason cower under the efficient foreshadowing of our eventual robotic overlords. How did the company do this? With a direct-to-the-table pneumatic food delivery system.

The idea is as simple as it is wonderful, and perhaps gives waiters a reason to be nervous. As demonstrated in the video below, the C One Espresso has installed a pneumatic tube system that resembles the same one you've likely used to shuttle money from a drive-thru terminal in to your bank's teller.

Orders are sent to the kitchen using this system, and, on the flip-side, the kitchen will soon start sending orders directly to tables using the same tubes. Presently, the system is still being installed, with the tables located in the center of the room rather than near the walls representing a more dedicated installation effort. To keep the cafe from being filled with tubes, the system will be run from the kitchen beneath the floor into the cafe's basement, where each tube will then come up through the floor to the middle of each table.

It will take about a year for that installation process to be wrapped up, but the tables located near the walls were easier to set up and will be used to kick off the pneumatic system sooner. A meal consisting of sliders, which are small hamburgers, as well as fries will be delivered with the system. Less you worry about sanitation issues, the capsule in which food will be delivered is entirely enclosed and made of metal.

SOURCE: Huffington Post